Image courtesy of Bob DeChiara/Imagn Images

FOXBOROUGH – At the end of the season when playoff seeding is determined, they won’t ask how the Patriots won games, just how many.

In its home opener on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots saw injuries mount and the offense struggle again, but the defense smothered Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh offense enough to earn a 20-3 victory.

The Steelers had just 235 yards of total offense, while Rodgers went 23-39 for only 139 yards and an interception. The defense had four sacks and a scoop-and-score touchdown while hammering Rodgers throughout the afternoon.

It’s a bit alarming that New England’s offense – the Pats had 327 total yards, but it certainly didn’t feel that productive – continues to struggle to find consistency early, but a win is a win.

“Well, that has to be the formula,” Mike Vrabel said postgame when asked about the defensive performance. “You have to effect the quarterback each and every week and we have to do a better job, continue to do a better job of helping our quarterback be efficient and he has a large part in that.

“But, we know that’s the formula. Proud of our defense, proud of everybody. A lot of guys stepped up. We had a lot of injuries. We played a lot of guys…some of these guys haven’t been around here…probably two weeks or so and they played for us. So, that’s a great thing that they were ready to go. But, we have to get healthy and figure out who’s available next week for a huge challenge.”

“Yeah, it is tough in this league. It is tough to, you want…we want to execute and be successful on offense and still know that that was not our best football when you come out with a win,” added Maye. “So, you have got to take it, see it both ways. You have got to be excited, and enjoy the win, but at the same time, you realize that playing like this is not going to end up with offensively, us leading our team to wins. I think that is what it starts, and it starts with me and starts with more juice, and coming there at halftime, you have got to feel like, “Man, we are going to go out there and score and put it on them and put the game away,” because our defense is giving those opportunities. So, it is nothing to hang your hat on.

“It is early on, but at the same time, we have got to have some urgency and a little fire under us.”

Calling the start to this one an ugly would be an understatement.

The defense forced a three-and-out to open the game with the building electric and loud, but Rhamondre Stevenson coughed up the ball four plays into New England’s first home drive after a quick reception and two nice moves to avoid defenders. Ironically, Stevenson had just one fumble all of last year following the disaster that was the Steelers’ game in 2025.

After the defense forced another quick punt, TreVeyon Henderson ripped off a 39-yard touchdown run five plays later in his first appearance of the season with 8:22 left in the first.

Chris Boswell missed a 56-yard field goal on the Steelers’ ensuing drive, but the big story came soon thereafter as injuries started to pile up for the Pats.

Mike Onwenu was immediately carted off with an ugly looking ankle injury on the Patriots’ next drive. Dell Pettus, Eli Raridon, Dre’Mont Jones and Craig Woodson were all injured over the course of the afternoon.

That same Patriots drive extended into the second quarter and ended with a 30-yard Andy Borregales field goal to make it 10-0.

The next Steelers drive saw one of the hardest QB hits you’ll ever see when Rodgers was absolutely destroyed on a third down sack by a blitzing Christian Elliss. The ball ended up rolling backwards far enough to make it 4th-and-43. Jones was unfortunately injured in a pile up for the ball and didn’t return.

The only other points in the mediocre first half came in the closing seconds, as Boswell hit a 56-yard field goal to make it 10-3 heading into the break.

“Yeah, I think you are figuring us as an offense out early in the weeks, and when you are playing against teams early in the weeks, you are figuring out what we have got, who we are. I think it is just a nature of doing things at a higher level, executing better,” Maye said. “Extra effort. We talked about this week, extra effort, extra execution, and I think things when we did, it showed up. We made some big plays, and TreVeyon [Henderson]’s touchdown had everybody blocked up. Pop [Douglas] made a huge block, and you just see the extra effort when it works.

“When we strain a little bit harder, good things happen, and then just doing that more and more, and it starts in practice.”

The Patriots opened the second half with the the ball and Maye hit Romeo Doubs – who posted 96-yards on the day – for a 29-yard gain on 3rd-and-5, but he was immediately picked off by Patrick Queen on an under throw the next play.

Two Steelers punts, a missed field goal by Borregales and a 45-yard field goal from Borregales set up by a 67-yard catch for Doubs accounted for the remaining points in the third, leaving New England up 13-3 heading to the fourth.

With the Steelers backed up, a Christian Barmore strip sack and 19-yard scoop-and-score for Elijah Ponder put the game away at 20-3. One more interception for rookie Gabe Jacas on a deflected screen pass with five minutes to go officially put it on ice.

So, as ugly as it was, the defending AFC champs are 1-1, should have won in Seattle and now have two very difficult road games coming up against Jacksonville and Buffalo.

We’re going to learn quite a bit about the Pats in a short amount of time here, but Maye knows his play and the play of the offense as a whole has to improve if this team is truly going to compete with the upper echelon organizations in the league.